The washing has been usually hung on a line or a pole outside the house for being dried by the sun light. However, the numbers of double-income households and bachelor households have increased recently, so that the washing of those households cannot be taken in when it rains during the daytime. Those households often do a washing in the evening, and hang the washing inside the house to dry, e.g. in the bath. Hanging the washing to dry inside the house has prevailed in those households, and it also prevents the washing from being stolen.
In a case where the washing is hung inside the house to dry, particularly in the bath, a clothes dryer having functions of heating, blowing, and ventilating is used for drying the clothes fast. In this case, since each piece of the washing can be dried in a different time from each other, uneven dry in the washing has occurred as a problem. For instance, if the clothes dryer is run until the clothes requiring the longest drying time are dried, other clothes requiring a shorter drying time have been over-dried, and as a result, energy is wasted.
A clothes-dryer taking measures against such uneven dry is disclosed in, e.g. Patent Literature 1. FIG. 35 shows a sectional view of a conventional clothes dryer. As shown in FIG. 35, the clothes dryer is used in the bath, and it comprises the following elements: circulation blower 101, louver device 102 for changing an air direction, heater 103, controller 104, surface temperature sensor 105, and temperature detector 106.
Circulation blower 101 sucks the air in the bath, and heats the air, then blows the heated air into the bath again. Louver device 102 changes a direction of the air blown from blower 101. Controller 104 controls blower 101, louver device 102, and heater 103. Surface temperature sensor 105 senses a temperature on the surface of the clothes, and temperature detector 106 detects a temperature inside a circulation air duct.
When a difference between a surface temperature, sensed by sensor 105, of the clothes and another temperature, detected by detector 106, of the circulating air is great, or this difference changes fast, controller 104 determines that the clothes are not dried yet, i.e. they are in a low degree of dryness, and then controller 104 blows heated air to these clothes.
The conventional dry-control method and the clothes dryer discussed above erroneously determine wet clothes as dried clothes when the clothes get radiation heat such as the sun light on their surfaces. It is thus hard to determine accurately the degree of dryness in the clothes, so that an optimum starting time for heating cannot be fixed. As a result, the clothes cannot be dried in an energy saving manner within a time desired by a user.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a clothes dryer that dries clothes by blowing air. This kind of conventional clothes dryer is described hereinafter with reference to FIGS. 36 and 37. FIG. 36 shows an external appearance of a louver device, which changes an airflow direction, of the conventional clothes dryer, and FIG. 37 shows a sectional view of a main unit of the conventional clothes dryer.
As shown in FIGS. 36 and 37, louvers 121 are mounted inside blow-off port 125 of main unit 124 of the clothes dryer, and louvers 121 can be rotated by motor 122 for generating multi-directional airflow. Louvers 121 slant with respect to rotary shaft 123 at the same tilt with each other. When sirocco fan 126 blows an airflow from blow-off port 125 to the inside of the bath, motor 122 rotates louvers 121 for blowing the airflow in multi-directions.
This clothes dryer blows the airflow periodically to a large amount of clothes hung on a broad line or a pole even at the line ends or the pole ends, where the clothes can be dried last of all, but the dryer cannot blow the airflow continuously to the entire clothes hung on the broad line. The clothes dryer thus needs a long drying time.
In a case where a user wants to dry a small amount of washing in a short time such as only one pair of jeans or a heavy clothing, blowing air in a wide area results in not only wasting energy but also prolonging a drying time because a speed of air blown to the washing is low.
Patent Literature 3 discloses a louver device of an air-conditioner for dehumidification, and the louver device is designed to blow the air uniformly to a wide area. FIG. 38 shows a perspective view of this conventional louver device.
As shown in FIG. 38, the louver device comprises the following elements: flap 142, flap-driver 143, multiple louvers 144, louver-driver 145, transmission mechanism 146, and connecting rods. Flap 142 pivots vertically on a lateral shaft mounted across blow-off port 141, and flap driver 143 drives flap 142 vertically. Multiple louvers 144 pivot laterally on vertical shafts mounted across blow-off port 141 and lying at right angles to the lateral shaft. Louver driver 145 drives louvers 144 laterally. Transmission mechanism 146 converts the rotary movement of driver 145 into linear movement along an extension line of the lateral shaft, thereby transmitting the driving force to louvers 144. The connecting rods allow multiple louvers 144 to pivot together in the same manner. This structure allows transmitting the driving force of driver 145 to louvers 144 within a limited space.
Since louvers 144 are separately placed from flap 142 in the foregoing conventional louver device, the structure of the device is obliged to be complicated and incurs a greater pressure-loss due to airflow resistance. It is thus needed to decrease the pressure loss.    Patent Literature 1: Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-277162    Patent Literature 2: Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H07-139759    Patent Literature 3: Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-240063